George Sperling
Encyclopedia
George Sperling is an American cognitive psychologist
. He is a Distinguished Professor of both Cognitive Science and Neurobiology & Behavior at the University of California, Irvine
. Sperling documented the existence of iconic memory
(one of the sensory memory
subtypes). Through several experiments, he showed support for his hypothesis that human beings store a perfect image of the visual world for a brief moment, before it is discarded from memory.
with three rows of three letters. Participants of the study were asked to look at the letters, for a brief period of time, and then recall them immediately afterwards. This technique, called free recall
showed that participants were able to, on average, recall 4-5 letters of the 9 they were given. This however, was already generally accepted in the psychological community, but Sperling believed that all 9 letters were stored in the viewer's memory for a short period of time, but the memory failed so rapidly that only 4 or 5 could be recalled. Sperling called this iconic memory. Sperling showed this with his experiment of cued recall. This trial was similar to free recall, however, instead if allowing participants to recall any of the letters, it would allow them to view the same matrix for the same amount of time, and then hear a pitch corresponding to a different row in the matrix. The viewer was to recall the letters in that corresponding row. On average, viewers were able to recall more during cued recall trials than free recall.
Sperling built upon this experiment to then determine the amount of time before information was discarded from a person's memory. Using the same matrix, allowing viewers to see the matrix for the same amount of time, and still giving the pitches to cue the viewer which row to recall, Sperling added a twist, there would be a 5 milli-second delay after the letters disappeared before the cue would appear. The participants were unable to recall as many letters, thus showing that visual stimuli that are not added to short term memory are discarded less than 5 milliseconds of initial introduction. (It was later agreed upon that most visual icons are eliminated from memory before 250 milliseconds)
He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
in 1992.
Cognitive psychology
Cognitive psychology is a subdiscipline of psychology exploring internal mental processes.It is the study of how people perceive, remember, think, speak, and solve problems.Cognitive psychology differs from previous psychological approaches in two key ways....
. He is a Distinguished Professor of both Cognitive Science and Neurobiology & Behavior at the University of California, Irvine
University of California, Irvine
The University of California, Irvine , founded in 1965, is one of the ten campuses of the University of California, located in Irvine, California, USA...
. Sperling documented the existence of iconic memory
Iconic memory
Iconic memory is the visual sensory memory register pertaining to the visual domain. It is a component of the visual memory system which also includes visual short term memory and long term memory . Iconic memory is described as a very brief . A small decrease in visual persistence occurs with age...
(one of the sensory memory
Sensory memory
During every moment of an organism's life, sensory information is being taken in by sensory receptors and processed by the nervous system. Humans have five main senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. Sensory memory allows individuals to retain impressions of sensory information after the...
subtypes). Through several experiments, he showed support for his hypothesis that human beings store a perfect image of the visual world for a brief moment, before it is discarded from memory.
Education
George Sperling attended University of Michigan with hopes to become a scientist in one of the major scientific field such as biolgy, chemistry, mathematics, and physics. He received his BS there in 1955 and went on to receive an MA in psychology from Columbia University in 1956. His passion for physiological psychology began accidentally in university which caused him to pursue a career in cognitive psychology. He received his PH.D. from Harvard and has advanced much after in the field of cognitive psychology by many of his famous works and research.Career
Throughout George Sperling's career, he has contributed to visual information processing and attention, theory and empirical research that spans the breadth of visual science and related areas to cognition . In 1960, Sperling performed an experiment using a matrixMatrix (mathematics)
In mathematics, a matrix is a rectangular array of numbers, symbols, or expressions. The individual items in a matrix are called its elements or entries. An example of a matrix with six elements isMatrices of the same size can be added or subtracted element by element...
with three rows of three letters. Participants of the study were asked to look at the letters, for a brief period of time, and then recall them immediately afterwards. This technique, called free recall
Free recall
Free recall is a basic paradigm in the psychological study of memory. In this paradigm, participants study a list of items on each trial, and then are prompted to recall the items in any order...
showed that participants were able to, on average, recall 4-5 letters of the 9 they were given. This however, was already generally accepted in the psychological community, but Sperling believed that all 9 letters were stored in the viewer's memory for a short period of time, but the memory failed so rapidly that only 4 or 5 could be recalled. Sperling called this iconic memory. Sperling showed this with his experiment of cued recall. This trial was similar to free recall, however, instead if allowing participants to recall any of the letters, it would allow them to view the same matrix for the same amount of time, and then hear a pitch corresponding to a different row in the matrix. The viewer was to recall the letters in that corresponding row. On average, viewers were able to recall more during cued recall trials than free recall.
Sperling built upon this experiment to then determine the amount of time before information was discarded from a person's memory. Using the same matrix, allowing viewers to see the matrix for the same amount of time, and still giving the pitches to cue the viewer which row to recall, Sperling added a twist, there would be a 5 milli-second delay after the letters disappeared before the cue would appear. The participants were unable to recall as many letters, thus showing that visual stimuli that are not added to short term memory are discarded less than 5 milliseconds of initial introduction. (It was later agreed upon that most visual icons are eliminated from memory before 250 milliseconds)
He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
in 1992.